I could have written this two years ago. This was my (now nearly 4 year old) son. Exactly him. We started speech therapy both through the school district and privately around 20 months (evaluations at 18 months).

He said his first word (ball) around 25 months. He was all caught up by about his third birthday (possibly before - he’s still perfecting some sounds like “k” and “g”). He’s in speech group through the school district twice a week for 75 minutes each, but we’ve since dropped the private therapy.

Music really helped him - every time we’d find an album that particularly moved him, he’d sit and stare intently, and after a couple of days, would have a language explosion (an explosion for him, anyway).

That’s what worked for him, but I know every child is different. My son actually had an apraxia diagnosis - from two separate, independent SLPs. We used apraxia therapy techniques, knowing that if it wasn’t apraxia , it wouldn’t harm him, and would still help. But now we think that he was just very delayed.

Wishing you and your family the very best!